Litigating the Rights of the Child (PDF)

Professor Dr Jaap E. Doek is an Emeritus Professor in Family and Juvenile Law at the VU University of Amsterdam and an extra-ordinary Professor in Children's Rights at the Anton de Kom University of Suriname. He is the special legal advisor of ECPAT and is a member of the board of various international NGO's, e.g. the African Child Policy Forum and Child Helpline International. He regularly serves as a consultant for UNICEF country offices. He was a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child  from 1999 until 2007 and the chairperson of that committee from 2001 until 2007. He was Dean of the Law Faculty at the VU University of Amsterdam from 1988 to 1992. He has been a juvenile court judge in the District Courts of Alkmaar and The Hague (1978-1985) and a deputy justice in the Court of Appeal of Amsterdam (2005-2012). He wrote or edited books and contributed to many books. Examples of books are: The Rights of the Child in International Law. Rights of the Child in a Nutshell and in Content: all about children's rights. Bern: Stampfli Publishers 2012 (together with Nevena Vuckovic-Sahovic and Jean Zermatten); Child Poverty: African and International Perspectives. Antwerp/Oxford/Portland: Intersentia 2009 (together with A.K. Shiva Kumar, David Mugawe and Shimelis Tsegaye). Examples of contributions to books: 'The Child's Right to Freedom from Violence. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and UN CRC General Comment 13' (together with Kim Svevo), in: Jon Conte (ed.), Child Abuse and Neglect Worldwide. Volume 1 Understanding, Defining and Measuring Child Maltreatment, Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford: Praeger 2014; and 'The CRC: Dynamics and Directions of Monitoring its Implementation', in: Antonella Invernizzi and Jane Williams (eds), TheHuman Rights of Children from Vision to Implementation, Farnham/Burlington: Ashgate Publishers 2011.



Professor Dr Ton Liefaard holds the UNICEF Chair in Children's Rights at Leiden University, Leiden Law